Iraq gives chilling warning of 'unconventional operations'

Baghdad - Iraq this afternoon delivered a chilling warning of "unconventional operations" tonight.

The Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed-al Sahaf, said the operations would be "nothing to do with the military" and there would be no chance for Allied forces to survive unless they surrendered.

It would be hard for the US forces to leave Baghdad airport alive, he said.

The Iraqis would not be using weapons of mass destruction but would conduct "kind of martyrdom operations", he said.

An hour later, Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television, referring to an incident last week in which it was claimed that a peasant had shot down an Apache helicopter with his rifle.

Assuming it was not one of the president's reputed doubles - and there was no immediate suspicion from analysts that it was - the broadcast was seen as proof that he had survived the inital bomb attacks of the war.

He said that the Allies had failed to crack Iraqi resistance and called on called upon Baghdad's people to resist whenever the aggressors came closer and to stick to "your principles, your patriotism and the honour of men and women".

Meanwhile small arms fire could be heard from central Baghdad.

In other developments on Day 16 of the war:

The US is renaming Saddam International Airport; An Iraqi was reportedly arrested over the deaths of two British soldiers; US officials played down proects of an all-out attack on Baghdad; Saddam Hussein finally appeared on TV, referring to an incident a week ago.

2,500 Iraqis 'surrender': US Marines have reported that about 2,500 Iraqi Republican Guards surrendered between the cities of Kut and Baghdad, US Central Command said today.

The surrender apparently occurred after clashes of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and the Republican Guard's Baghdad Division, said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, spokesman at US Central Command.

He stressed that Central Command had only received the report from the Marines on the ground and could not confirm it outright. He said the reports indicated that there were uniforms, boots and helmets on the streets and that the surrender showed the division was "demonstrating an unwillingness to fight against the American forces".

There will be some confusion about reports of the surrender. It is two days since US Central Command said that the Baghdad division had been destroyed and was no longer "combat effective".

He added that the US military was confident that it had breached the defensive ring around Baghdad.

He also said that US forces has "effective control" of roads between Baghdad and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town and where some analysts suspect he could be.

The man was detained at a road block set up by British troops at Al Zubayr, 15 miles outside Basra.

On March 23 Sapper Luke Allsopp, 24, of north London and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, from Essex of the 33 (EOD) Engineer Regiment, a specialist bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers, went missing after an attack on military vehicles near Al Zubayr.

Their bodies were later shown on Qatar based satellite broadcaster al–Jazeera, prompting condemnation from coalition commanders and politicians.

Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, whose infantry battalion was trying to secure Saddam International Airport, said the approach of US forces should send a message to the people of Baghdad. He added: "We're here, and they can rise up and deal with the regime appropriately."

The front line message was reinforced from the Pentagon. President Bush's top military adviser, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers, said US troops forces might isolate Baghdad, rather than storming it, while work begins on forming an interim post-Saddam government.

"When you get to the point where Baghdad is basically isolated... you have a country that Baghdad no longer controls," Myers said at the Pentagon. He estimated that Saddam's regime already has lost effective control of 45 per cent of Iraq's territory.

Meanwhile the Allies today denied responsibility for the first Baghdad blackout since the war began. Group Capt Al Lockwood, a UK military spokesman at Allied Central Command in Qatar, suggested it may have been the "the last roll of the dice of a dying and finished regime". -- Independent News

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